


The Lightest Part Of The Forest (Your Face, The Moon, The Colours Fade)

by CasTheButler, YumeNouveau



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Automation - Freeform, Brotherly Bonding, Dream Sequences, First Kiss, If you expect anything to happen in this fic it is the wrong fic for you, M/M, Wolfstar Reverse Big Bang, Wolves, alternative universe, brief masturbation, dystopian au, mentions of abuse, soulmate realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-27 14:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19014466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasTheButler/pseuds/CasTheButler, https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumeNouveau/pseuds/YumeNouveau
Summary: Take this kiss upon the brow!And, in parting from you now,Thus much let me avow —You are not wrong, who deemThat my days have been a dream;Yet if hope has flown awayIn a night, or in a day,In a vision, or in none,Is it therefore the less gone?All that we see or seemIs but a dream within a dream.- Edgar Allen Poe





	The Lightest Part Of The Forest (Your Face, The Moon, The Colours Fade)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my submission for this the Wolfstar reverse big bang. It's my first time writing for Wolfstar and Harry Potter in general. Everyone has been really supportive through this whole process and I'd really like to thank the Discord Group and anyone who put up with me by helping out with story structure and grammar edits and my general nuisance. I'm really genuinely quite proud of how this turned out and will obviously link to the art as soon as possible.
> 
> Please let me know if I've missed tagging anything.
> 
> Artist Notes:  
> Thank you to the amazing mods for running this contest once again! It's a dream to be able to participate each year and I love collaborating with awesome authors like Cas! Thank you for being inspired by my art -Yume

Sirius was thirteen when the apocalypse started, not that anybody called it that back then. Bloody Hell, some people don’t even call it that now. It was 2043 when the planet reached almost 95% complete automation. “It is simply just excellent innovation” his mother would say, packing the whole family into her shiny black self-driving automobile. Sirius - because he was insolent and bratty - and also, as it turned out, incredibly smart, hated that car. He hated sitting in it, driving past the thousands of homeless people pouring out into the streets. Not because he thought they were lazy and filthy, the way his father did. Because it made his stomach twist in knots, to be so privileged - knots that have never come undone.  
  
Sirius was sixteen when he bought his motorcycle. It would be a few months until he had his full license and honestly, the engine was probably more powerful than he was allowed to have. Sirius didn’t care though - he’d found something that didn’t run purely off a tiny computer chip in the engine. It isn’t even that Sirius hates computers. He isn’t some kind of neo-Luddite. He’s just under the impression that vehicles, medical dispensaries and things that control the growth of crops maybe shouldn’t be controlled by a machine.  
  
Sirius was days away from celebrating his seventeenth birthday when the first crashes start to happen. The cars pile up and up, and up on top of each other, and no one can remove them from the roads and entire towns are cut off. They watch on the news as the same thing happens on the mainland and in America, China, India, Australia. Next, to go are the crops. It starts with the extinction of bananas, as the machines drown them into oblivion. Sirius really fucking misses bananas. He screws his eyes shut; he should really be trying to sleep instead of reminiscing about a time that’s never coming back. He'd had another dream, the boy again. Sirius has been dreaming about the boy for as long as he can remember. Not the same dream mind you and the boy doesn’t always look exactly the same, different ages, different clothes, different haircuts. It's definitely the same boy though, it has to be. Sirius is sure he’d recognise him anywhere. He would have to.  
  
James rolls over beside him and kicks Sirius in the legs, which brings him fully back to reality. The two of them are holed up in an old warehouse, curled up together under the one shitty blanket they have. They’ve been here for a few days. It hasn’t hit winter yet but the night is still freezing. He shivers, trying to grab the blankets off of James, who grips them tighter. Sirius kicks back in frustration.  
  
“Fu’ off, you tosser,” James mumbles, Sirius has known James for as long as he can remember, and these days there are times when James is all he knows. Sirius grumbles and wraps his arms around James’ waist; if his best friend is going to hog the blankets then Sirius is going to leech off his body heat. James wriggles about a bit and then they both fall back asleep.  
  
Sirius is stiff in the morning in more ways than one and he scrunches his nose up. He knows his body is just having a natural reaction, but it never really stops being weird waking up with a semi-erect dick pressing into someone else’s leg. He gets up off the floor and ignores it, opting instead to stretch his back out as much as possible.  
  
“Where are we going next?” he asks James when the other boy begins to make movements. James reaches blindly and pulls on his jacket.  
  
“Can’t I get a bit of breakfast first, or like a decent shower?” James jokes though either would be a luxury.  
  
“I miss showers so much.” Sirius groans, gathering their stuff together. He’s going to have to do an inventory of their food supply soon. They’re running low and most supermarkets have been completely gutted of food. Apparently, some of the farms are back up and running if you go as far as Scotland. Somewhere called Hogsmeade, or Hogwarts is what the last few groups they’ve run into have been chattering about even though the fall of the machines has made long-range communication damn near impossible. Of course, going that far isn't an option for everyone and there are fringe camps and towns scattered about the place.  
  
The fall of the machines, Sirius scoffs out loud which earns him a concerned look from James, it sounded like a bad science fiction movie. He remembers one he’d watched as a kid that involved both time travel and a fantastical version of artificial intelligence.  
  
“Hello, Siri,” James is waving a hand in front of Sirius’ face, “you right there mate?”  
  
Sirius bats his best friend’s hand away “Yeah Jamie, just thinking if I need to starting thinking about cannibalism”  


🌱

  
  
Remus Lupin was a wolf, he always had been one, even before the so-called apocalypse. Not in the way most people think of wolves. He wasn’t a ferocious beast with gnashing teeth and blood dripping freshly from his mouth. No, Remus Lupin was a loyal creature, protective, a pack leader.  
  
He curls his fingers in Maisie’s grey fur because of course, a wolf would keep the company of other wolves. Maisie’s huge body shifts in her sleep as she settles down against her packmate. There’s a rustling in the trees and Remus turns his head when he hears a twig snap. The culprit is a boy, only a few years younger than Remus. Regulus has managed to keep his youthful look whereas Remus feels the fatigue of these past few years tugging lines next to his eyes. He’s barely nineteen, or maybe it’s twenty.  
  
Regulus isn’t alone of course, because he’s a teenager, and they’re hormonal little shits apparently. The girl tagging along behind him is staring at Remus in surprise and probably embarrassment.  
  
“I was asleep you know, Reggie,” Remus says crossly, eyeing his companion. She was new to the wolf pack but she’d slotted in well, within days. The wolves seem to like her, both literal and human. Remus hasn’t bothered to keep track of her name though. It's nothing against her of course, he just doesn’t want to start getting attached to people before they’ve been here a month or two. There are other creatures in these woods, besides the wolves, that like to steal his pack away.  
  
‘Conscription’ they call it, the remnants of a governmental power clinging on for dear life. Remus calls it snatching up anyone they possibly can for fatal slave labour. If they would pay them, thousands would be happy to do the work. “Let them have lunch breaks and time to sleep” people had told them time and time again, but the officials had laughed. “Millennials are so demanding”, one had said in a grand speech - that was before the tellies had all gone off. Nobody really knew what a Millennial was anymore, other than a synonym for a young person.  
  
“Sorry, Alpha Remus,” Regulus says cheekily, not looking very sorry at all. The little brat. Remus rolls his eyes and waves them off. “Keep it in your pants Regulus,” he calls after them and he can sense how much the girl blushes.  
  
He does try to go back to sleep. Trying to chase his own dreams, but the tree is digging a little too obviously into his back and he can sense something coming on the horizon. Not for the first time he thinks perhaps he really is a werewolf from the stories of old. He cracks his knuckles individually, a habit he used to hate but now somehow finds it a comfort. Remus had been a fretful child, all gangly, with a nervous disposition. It wasn’t so much that he’d grown out of it- he just didn’t have time for it anymore. He smiles to himself and curls his fingers around a bar of chocolate in his pocket. He’s saving it for a special occasion, it’s getting harder and harder to come by.  
  
🌱  
  
Sirius is pretty sure he’s asleep but it’s hard to tell because nothing feels different, or maybe everything does. For the first time in forever, he is alone. There is no James which is why he’s sure he is sleeping. However, the boy that lives in his dreams isn’t there either. The place he is in feels comfortably warm, but it is too dark to really make out anything out.  
  
“Hello?” he calls out cautiously. No answer returns for him other than the echo of his own voice. This place is hollow and devoid of all things. Sirius isn’t afraid of it, of this emptiness. He just wants to search for the companion of his dreams, and so he does.

  
  
  
🌱

  
  
Remus has taken the wolves out hunting for the day. His pack has gone past the edges of their territories. Remus has no real claim to the land of course, but other rebel and fringe groups respect it well enough. Even the death patrols don’t venture into this place he has staked his claim on. Some of the fresh-faced daring ones do of course. Everybody wants to prove themselves loyal and innovative. Mostly the government guard dogs stick to picking off stragglers on the outskirts, in other parts of his forest. There’s a snapping of a twig and Remus turns towards the sound. There is someone standing a ways off, dressed in a law person’s uniform. Head to toe black with thick heavy boots and a green crest on the sleeve. Remus never understood why they all wear boots like that. Sure it can be intimidating, but it’s hardly practical for subtlety.  
  
“What do I have here, a little rabbit scrounging for scraps all alone with the big scary trees,” the man sneers, Remus wants to laugh but he knows now is not the time to be overconfident. The wolves circle at this feet protectively and Remus orders them home.  
  
“You’re not welcome here Greyback,” Remus says once the two of them are alone. Officer Greyback unholsters a pistol from his belt and points it directly at Remus. Remus can feel his heart constricting in his throat. He doesn’t want to get shot today, he hasn’t even had breakfast.  
  
“I’m welcome everywhere.”  
  
“That why you’re out here all by yourself then? Because all the officers just love to be so close to you?” Remus questions, the lilt in his voice perfectly constructed to get a rise out of Greyback.  
  
“Fuck you Lupin,” Greyback says and then he shoots. He misses of course, because he’s so riled up and because at one point despite everything he’d liked Remus. Greyback had tried to recruit him at the beginning. Which really wasn’t that long ago, everything seems long in this world they live in now. The passage of time-warped and diluted in a way Remus was once sure was purely fictional.    
  
"I'd rather you didn't and you just left my territories," Remus retorts, staring at the weapon in Greyback's hands. The officer lowers it, putting it back on his belt.  
  
"You do know none of this land belongs to you, Lord Riddle only grants you concessions because you're a mangy mutt."  
  
"Not from where I'm standing and I think Tom knows that too. Knows I would fight with all the savagery of men to keep what I've earned. Just like he did," Remus says, turning on his heels and starting back towards camp.  
  
"I catch you out here again I won't hesitate to skin you alive," Greyback calls after him.  
  
"Try not to murder any innocent children on your way home Fenrir," Remus quips

  
🌱

  
Sirius fills up the tank of his motorcycle with petrol he has siphoned from vehicles along the roads. There are still operational petrol stations scattered around, but you’d be hard pressed to find someone who could actually afford the prices.  
  
The bike is a fine piece of machinery if he does say so himself; he and James have modified it to have a trailer on the back to fit their belongings. James sits in there himself sometimes if he doesn’t want to cling onto Sirius for long periods of time. He says it’s because the seat hurts his arse.  Which Sirius believes, but it’s hard not to think back to the phase James had when they were twelve and Sirius had started kissing boys. James didn’t care that Sirius was gay, he was just utterly convinced that he was so bloody attractive Sirius would want to kiss him. Sirius set that straight by socking him in the jaw and calling him a tosser.  
  
Of course exactly two years later James was the one to come and shyly kiss him, after figuring out that maybe he liked some boys a little more than he’d initially thought. However, certain things stick with you when you have nothing to do but think about your life in its entirety. Sirius isn’t sure if that’s Nihilism or Existentialism. It’s not like he’s ever read a philosophy book. He and James hadn’t ended up together, of course, well they had in a sense. James and Sirius were undeniably two parts of a whole person and whilst one existed without the other, and no one would suffer if they were apart...it still felt wrong-footed to separate.  
  
They're heading Northeast towards a food processing company that only ever completed partial automation and may have old stores and restorable equipment. It could feed some people it hasn't been taken over by the rich elitists or picked apart by the desperation of starvation. Sirius has never been angrier about being the heir to the great Black Empire; if it was bad before, the divide between rich and poor had grown exponentially after this disaster. They have to go through the forests to get there. Sirius isn't a fan - he's hoping the folks who live there will leave them alone and the government lackeys who lurk on the edges of the trees won't catch them. They've packed everything up and head down the thankfully clear road.  
  
They cover as much ground as possible until nightfall. They stop at a shelter and give false identification - they have several names and aliases. In fact, Sirius isn't sure of the last time he was just himself. They subtly test the food and drinks they are provided for drugs with a clear, reactive, nail polish they both wear. When they deem it safe, they shovel it down like the unrefined animals that they are. Sirius narrowly avoids sneering at the portrait hanging on the wall.  
  
Thomas Riddle: self-appointed Head of State and a good friend to the noble Black Family. Sirius had always hated the slimy bastard. He was sure the feeling was mutual, especially after slipping a dead rat into dear Uncle Tom’s shoe.  Mother had been livid about the whole situation and locked Sirius in his room for a week. Nobody had asked how Sirius had come by the rat, or how the rat had come to die.  
  
Sirius shakes himself out of his thoughts and finds James staring at him questioningly. Sirius shrugs and James nods, barely a tilt of his head. Somewhere like this isn’t the place to discuss things. They don’t stay to sleep but they do rest, reading up on the latest propaganda posted on the notice board by the officials. They also piece together the location of a safe haven out amongst the trees, by deciphering codes littered about the place in secret, if only you knew where to look. Sirius memorises the route; he was always good at that.  
  
Dawn barely breaks out through the clouds when they leave. A couple of things are missing from their cart which both he and James grumble about, but it’s hard to be angry at that sort of thing in this day and age. It’s half a day of riding until they find where they need to go. James finds a run-down house with a garage to hide the bike and they take a couple of packs. Sirius never likes leaving it, but they can hardly take it through the trees with them. It’ll draw too much attention.

  
  
🌱

  
  
Remus ruffles a hand through Regulus’ hair as he hands him a bowl of stewed rabbit. Regulus growls at him, just like a little wolf cub. Remus never had a little brother but Regulus seems like the one he was meant to have.  
  
Remus had found him half beaten to death by the side of the road - he’d recognised the emblem on his fine black woollen coat, of course, the ancient and noble house of Black. Remus had taken him in and nursed him back to health.  
  
“Thank you,” Regulus says after he had a couple of bites.  
  
“What happened to that girl you were gallivanting around with?” Remus asks him.  
  
Regulus rolls his eyes, “You’re such an old man, you do know that, right?” Regulus remarks, the teasing in his voice obvious, “She went off with the Sirens,”  
  
Remus hums under his breath, of course, she did and Remus can’t blame her. The Sirens are a formidable group of women making a real difference while all he does is hide away in the woods. Remus screws his eyes shut - no, what he does is give people a home. He does wish Lily would stop by more often whenever she comes and poaches his residents, partially for his own piece of mind, but mostly because Remus misses his friends. Regulus must sense something is on Remus’ mind because he pokes him in the ribs.  
  
“Lily says she’ll be back in a couple of days. They got word of a low guarded work camp that they’re going to attack in the south. Easy job - in and out,” he says.  
  
“Well, I guess they know what they’re doing,” Remus says, his voice sharp with worry. He’ll have to prepare for extra bodies, he supposes, and he’s never going to turn anyone away, but the more people he has to look after, the harder it is to keep the camp silent and mobile. Maisie flops down next to him, blood smeared on her fur. He checks her quickly, but the blood simply appears to be from a meal. Rufus, another one of their wolves, is being thrown pieces of meat by Peter Pettigrew, a boy around Remus’ age, although it’s easy to mistake him as much younger due to his short stature and meek demeanour. Remus likes him well enough, but Regulus always sneers at him and tries to avoid him.  
  
“Do you ever wonder how your family are doing?” Regulus asks, and Remus feels his body still. Rufus lies down at their feet and Regulus pats him vigorously.  
  
“My family is dead, lost out there somewhere in the wasteland,” Remus says, fixing his gaze at the sky; it’ll be a full moon soon.  
  
“I had an older brother, once,” Regulus says, his hands' grip at the wolf’s fur and Rufus grumbles at him, the sound vibrating his throat. “Sorry boy,” he tells him. “I don’t know if he’s still out there. He was gone before everything fell to pieces.”  
  
“He ran away from home then?” Remus asks. Regulus doesn’t like to talk about his family. He’d known, of course, that there was another Black Brother, Remus’ own age if the calculations in his head are correct.  
  
Regulus shakes his head. “I really don’t know anymore.”

  
  
🌱

  
  
“These trees are bloody ominous,” James is complaining for the third time in an hour. Sirius thinks it has an hour at least. They stopped having devices that could tell time months ago. What did it even matter in a place like this?  
  
“They’re only trees, Jamie,” Sirius tells him, trying to placate his best friend’s nervousness. James pauses to consult the instructions and keeps heading the way they were going.  
  
“I think we’re almost to the camp,” he says, his voice drowned out by a howl as he speaks. Sirius feels his heart in his throat. Of course, wild animals living this deep in a forest makes sense, but it doesn’t mean he’s willing to encounter them. James and Sirius look at each other.  
  
“I think that was a while away,” Sirius tells him.  
  
 James gives him a sharp nod, gripping onto the handles of his bag. “It’ll be right mate, I just have to run faster than you,” he jokes, earning him a friendly, yet strong, punch in the arm.  
  
“Cheeky tosser,” Sirius laughs, “just because you were on the track team doesn’t mean I can’t keep up with you.”  
  
James has that look in his eyes like he’s about to challenge Sirius to a duel. Any other time Sirius would have taken him up on it; they are notoriously bad influences on each other. However, this time Sirius places a protective hand on James’ chest, for a gigantic wolf has appeared on the horizon.  
  
“Holy Shit,” James whispers in awe.

  
  
🌱

  
  
Remus is missing one of his wolves. Having left Rufus in Regulus’ care, he has been searching the territory with Maisie.  Sloan, the third and youngest wolf hadn’t been seen by any of the campers for most of the day. The Sirens had returned victorious with liberated workers, and even Lily had informed him that they hadn’t seen any sign of Sloan.  
  
Maisie butts her head into Remus’ arm and he gives her a good scratch behind the ears. The weather today is making the hole in his coat more noticeable than usual. Hopefully, he can scrounge up some sewing supplies soon, or a new set of clothes, if he’s lucky.  
  
He’s about to turn back, retrace the perimeter yet again when he hears a calling howl. Maisie returns it and he can hear Rufus in the distance too. He lets go of the breath he’s been holding stagnant in his lungs and takes off at a sprint.  
  
Living with wild creatures has made Remus much fitter than he ever was in his early childhood, and they reach Sloan in just under ninety minutes. She’s circling two young people - men at first glance - but Remus doesn’t want to make any assumptions on that front before he’s met them properly.  
  
“See,” one of them is saying, locking eyes with Remus. “Someone is here to rescue us.”  
  
Remus whistles and Sloan flounces towards him, pleased with her catch. He scratches her under her chin.  
  
“Hello there,” he calls out to the newcomers, raising his arm in greeting.

  
  
🌱

  
“Nice wolves you’ve got there, very terrifying, mate,” James calls out, and the man from the forest laughs.  
  
  
“They aren’t so bad. Come up here, would ya? I don’t fancy yelling back and forth- might attract too much attention,” the man says. Sirius and James look at each other, having one of those private conversations only best friends, or something equally as intimate can have. They make their way up towards the newcomer. Sirius stretches his arm out as they reach the top of the hill and Remus ’hand reaches out to pull him up the last few steps.  
  
“Fancy meeting you out here. I’m Remus,” he says. He’s handsome up close, Sirius notices, and he lets out an involuntary whine that he hopes is subtle enough to pass off as something other than the desperation of horniness. There is something else there too, behind all of that. Something about Remus that Sirius can’t quite place.  
  
“Stop flirting with the wood sprite,” James huffs, shoving his hand in Remus’ face. “I’m James, and this absolute loser is Sirius.”  
  
Sirius wraps his arm around James, pulling him into a headlock and the two of them tumble to the forest floor. The wolves circle around them, pouncing about playfully. Sirius feels a wet nose poking at his leg. “You’re very friendly aren’t you?” he says, cautiously reaching a hand out to pat the wolf.  
  
“This is Maisie,” Remus tells him. “And this is Sloan,” he says, pointing to the wolf that had captured them. James and Sirius stop wrestling and straighten their clothes. Remus is smirking at them.  
  
“You two don’t spend much time around other people, do you?” Remus laughs  
  
“I mean, you live in a forest mate!” James quips.  
  
“I don’t live alone,” Remus says with a shrug, tilting his head to the south, “Come on,” he tells them. Sirius and James start after him. Sirius is surprised at how easily Remus lets them come with him.  
  
“Wait, Hold on how do you know we aren’t dangerous?” James asks, voicing Sirius’ own concern and confusion. Remus comes to a halt and the wolves stop with him. He turns to face James with a menacing grin.  
  
“Oh, if you were. Sloan would have eaten you,” Remus tells them before breaking out into a low laugh. “Riddle’s men wear very particular clothing, espionage is hardly their strongest asset.”  
  
“Maybe it’s you we should be worried about,” Sirius jokes. Remus turns his gaze on him.  
  
“Maybe it is,” he replies, but Sirius doubts it.

  
  
🌱

  
  
James and Sirius are certainly interesting, Remus concludes as he leads them back to the camp. They joke and bolster each other, trying to pull Remus into their shenanigans. Remus feels younger than he has in years, relishing in their unexpected companionship. He wonders if the two young men (for James has confirmed their genders) will stick around long enough for Remus to remember their names. Remus certainly hopes so.  
  
“We’re almost there,” he says, as Sirius wheezes from exertion.  
  
“Fuck, I miss the bike,” he breathes out heavily, grasping at James’ coat.  
  
“Apparently you also miss gym class,” James teases and Remus laughs at that, feeling for all the world like an old friend and not an old acquaintance. They pass through a thick grouping of trees into a clearing, into the camp.  
  
James gasps and Remus feels a swelling of pride in his chest. Tents litter the ground, and moveable platforms are rigged up into the trees. A campfire crackles with warmth. Regulus and Lily are talking nearby. Regulus turns towards him, his usual impish grin painted across his face, as though he’s about to take great glee in telling Remus something. Probably Lily rescuing someone pretty that Regulus will take a fancy to. But the smile slips as Regulus registers Remus’ new companions. The look that flashes across the younger boy’s eyes makes Remus think perhaps Regulus has bonded with the wolves too much.  
  
“Reg,” Lily calls after him as he marches forward. Regulus ignores her and she looks over at Remus with a question on her face. Remus shakes his head because he doesn’t know either.  
  
“Holy shit,” he hears James say beside him; Sirius says nothing at all. Sirius continues to say nothing when Regulus grabs at the fraying edges of his coat and makes a pained noise at him. It strikes him, now that he sees the two of them standing face to face.  
  
“So this is the brother then,” Remus says softly. “James, I could use some help preparing dinner, if you don’t mind.”  
  
James nods, obviously privy to the fact Remus wants to leave Sirius and Regulus to their own devices, “Of course.”  
  
The two of them walk towards the fire, where Lily is now talking to Marlene and Dorcas. James sucks in a breath and Remus tries not to sigh. Men tend to fall all over these women. Remus can not see them as anything more than friends. Friends who could kill him.  
  
“I suggest you don’t think about it,” he tells James calmly, while James catches himself on a tree root and stumbles.  
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” James says, his whole face flushed red.  
  
“The sirens are not a conquest,” Remus grumbles. He already likes James but the Sirens are his family. James looks at him and smiles.  
  
“What if they conquest me?” he jokes and Remus hits him lightly in the stomach for he knows it is simply a tease. “Can I be introduced at least, if I promise to seduce no one to my bed?”  
  
“Why would you need to? Do you not have Sirius?” Remus questions. He’d thought the two of them to be lovers under all of the friendly facade  
  
“Sirius is an excellent companion but not one to be seduced,” James says, and this time it is Remus’ turn to blush. “That’s not to say we didn’t sleep together a few times when we were younger if that’s what you’re wondering. I mean I adore Sirius more than anything, and he’s being there through everything I could ever use a friend for, but ultimately he’s just a mate. A really good one obviously but -” James cuts himself off. As though he’s not sure how to put what Sirius is to him into words. Remus understands what he means, and it probably feels messy to say.  
   
“Regulus has missed Sirius,” Remus says, purposefully changing the subject. They’ve reached the other side of the camp, and though it’s nowhere near where they would need to be to get to the food supply, it’s far enough away from the main hustle to give them some privacy. James’ footfalls stop and Remus turns to look at him.  
  
“You care about him?” James asks, more than simply a statement.  
  
“I care about everyone at my camp,” Remus replies because it is true. He may have been thrust into it unwittingly but he takes his role as leader very seriously.  
  
“No, no I know that I can see that,” James placates, “I mean, you care about him more than the others. You love him.”  
  
Remus feels taken aback by his statement, though it is not so much an accusation, as really just a fact “I do, yes.”  
  
“Has he been happy here? He always was a little brat growing up, you know? Their parents weren’t particularly...kind people,” James tells him, and Remus flashes back to Regulus scarred, trembling and weak, when he first arrived here  
  
“He’s still a brat. I don’t think he has any plans to outgrow that,” Remus jokes, his voice strained. James places a hand on his arm and squeezes.  
  
“I’m glad he’s here. I was sure he was dead. I think Sirius thought so as well if he’d ever be half-way honest with himself.”  
  
  
“A trait they share, then,” Remus says.  
  
James laughs but the sound is brief, “We never meant to leave Regulus behind, I just want you to know that.”  
  
“Why would I need to know that, I’m not holding any blame to how Reggie ended up in my care. As you said, I love him,” Remus says, he looks at James wondering if the two of them are really understanding each other. “He means so much to me, like my own brother, or maybe a child? A bit like you and Sirius, I guess, in that it’s hard to explain I mean.”  
  
"I don't think it is really like I get it. I think at least," James muses, "I know I'm not Siri's soulmate. I don't believe in them, not in some grand fairytale sense and that isn't to say I don't believe in love and destiny and all that bollocks. It's just I know Sirius is destined for something special and I want to watch him reach that point. Like a parent with a child, but more than that because Sirius and Regulus' parents were utter shite."  
  
Remus takes in James' words like they're the fountain of knowledge and not just the ramblings of one young man to another in the middle of the forest, in the middle of a dying world, "I see what you mean."

  
  
🌱

  
  
  
“Where the fuck have you been?” Regulus demands of Sirius, the moment the others walk away. Sirius watches his little brother’s eyes track Remus’ movements as he guides James across the camp. He’s seen that look before.  
  
“Have I been replaced, Reggie?” Sirius counters. Regulus chews harshly on his bottom lip, another childhood trait, something Mother and Father had tried to beat out of him. Sirius had thought it had worked. He suddenly has an image of his brother in his mind, a perfect little princeling all dolled up in a suit that costs more than a modest three bedroom home. Imaginary Regulus has a vacant smile and vapidness in his gaze.  
  
Real Regulus is in tattered rags. The green hoodie he’s wearing swims on his body, he has gotten so thin. “You’re not replaceable,” Regulus says quietly.  
  
“I moved in with James for a while, after all of the shit with mother and father and then - well, everything went to fucking shit, didn’t it? What with everything failing spectacularly. I mean people seem to think it happened gradually, but people have short memories. ”  
  
“They were worse after you were gone, and it was hard to keep believing in their vision anymore. Like, did you see the creepy tattoos everyone was getting, to symbolise their devotion to Uncle Tom?” Regulus shudders, pulling up his sleeve. There it is - the mark that haunts Sirius’s nightmares. A snake twisting around itself until finally a the tail protrudes from a skull. It’s a grotesque design if it didn’t symbolise something so horrific Sirius might have even considered it beautiful  
  
“How old,” Sirius asks hoarsely, tracing his thumb over the mark. It is professionally done and well taken care of -a brand. Regulus pulls his sleeve down.  
  
“Old enough, apparently. I hate that you left. I get it, I left too eventually but it was harder. I didn’t hate Mother and Father the way you did, the way I’m sure you still do. I don’t love them anymore. But I don’t think there’s any room in my heart to actually hate them.”  
  
“I don’t, hate that I left” Sirius replies because he can’t ever regret leaving. “I thought about more than once coming to get you, dragging you out of there but we were never good brothers to each other, not when it counted. Regulus shrugs his shoulder, reminding Sirius of himself. It makes sense since they were raised the same.  
  
“It’s fine, if you’d come too soon I wouldn’t have come with you and I think we’d both have ended up stuck there. The good son and the rebellious son both under their thumbs. I needed you to be gone, to see how bad it really was,” Regulus explains.  
  
“I never imagined seeing you again, but somehow I thought you’d be angrier,” Sirius says  
  
“Maybe I would have been but Remus is a really nice person,” Regulus says, fiddling with the edge of his sleeve, “I want to stay here. This is my home, my life,” he takes a deep breath, “My, my, my family.”  
  
“Regulus, stop, you’re panicking, absolutely nothing is stopping you from staying here.”  
  
“So you being here is just, what? A coincidence?” Regulus counters. Sirius remembers once when he was five, and Regulus was three, Regulus having the exact look he has now. It had been followed by a huge tantrum that had _disappointed_ their parents.  
  
“It isn’t a coincidence; we wanted to come here. You’re the factor I wasn’t expecting,” Sirius explains, he’s tired and weary. He gestures for his younger brother to sit down and the two of them use two nearby trees to lean against. “Look I’m sorry we weren’t closer before, and that I just left, but Mother and Father were going to kill me and I was terrified,”  
  
Regulus looks up at the grey sky as though he’s searching for an answer, “Are you sure?”  
  
“Yeah Reg, I’m sure.” Sirius can feel the sting of tears in the back of his eyes. He tries to blink them away but it just causes them to leak out. He turns away and wipes the moisture away on his sleeve. Regulus leans into him and Sirius wraps an arm around his brother.  
  
“I should have stopped them.”  
  
“But you wouldn’t have, there are many things we should have done, and I’m sure there are many nights we can both look back and remember despising the other. I think though, even knowing what we know now we wouldn’t change all that much,” Sirius explains, placing a hand absentmindedly in Regulus’ hair. Something he’d normally do with James.  
  
“How can you possibly say that, how could you possibly fucking think I wouldn’t try to help you, you said you were sure you were going to die. How can you be blase about all of it?” Regulus asks he’s barely raised his voice and yet he sounds filled with rage.  
  
“I know because if you gave me a choice right now I wouldn’t go back and help you, and maybe that’s selfish, and maybe I don’t know what they did to you, but I can bloody take a guess Regulus. I can picture it because we aren’t so different in the end. I refuse, I refuse to go back and help you no matter how much it hurts because I’m still terrified and because I know you ended up safe here in the forest with Remus,” Sirius takes a sharp, defeated breath and hugs Regulus tightly, “and what if I ruined that?”  
  
“I understand, I wouldn’t want to ruin the moments of your life either, the good or the bad,” Regulus says.  
  
“Thank you,” Sirius replies shoving at his brother boisterously and Regulus shoves back with equal force.  
  
“Do you still dream of the boy?” Regulus asks.

  
  
🌱

  
  
“You can’t just say you love me and leave me here,” Captain Wolf tells him, clinging at his jumpsuit like it’s a lifeline. Sirius shrugs him off. Knowing its a callous act.  
  
“The world is going to end tomorrow, you know that we’ve talked about this,” he explains.  
  
“Star Striker, please. It doesn’t have to be like this you know how to stop all of it, you know how to stop the apocalypse,” Captain Wolf begs. Sirius scrunches his eyes shut tightly. He won’t be Star Striker for much longer and they can call each other by their real names finally. They won’t have to play this heroes and villains game.  
  
“I can’t just let the Serpent hurt you like that. I love you so much,” Sirius says. Sealing his words with a kiss and a promise. The world might end here but it continues in the colonies.

  
  
🌱

  
  
Remus has been watching Sirius, or Sirius has been watching him. It’s hard to know anymore. People have certainly noticed. Peter mentioned it several times before Remus threatened to make him dinner for the wolves. He’d shut up after that.

  
  
🌱

  
  
“Is this seat taken?” Sirius says, Remus doesn’t look up at him but he does shrug. Sirius must take it as a yes because Remus now has company.  
  
“You want some chocolate?” he asks, holding some out. Sirius smiles and Remus’ heart skips a beat in a way he didn’t know it could.  
  
“No thank you, I don’t really like it,” Sirius tells him. It’s dark now and Sirius leans back on his hands.  
  
“I don’t know if we can be friends,” Remus teases, his voice stuttering. He’s never like this, shy and nervous. Certainly not so easily flustered by some guy he’s only spoken a few words to. Remus does NOT do strangers. Sirius isn't a stranger though, he's familiar and solid. In a way that feels personal to Remus, not just the memory of a boy skulking in the background of televised programmes being told to smile and sit up straighter by the sternest looking woman Remus ever had the displeasure of seeing.  
  
“Are you okay?” Sirius asks, and Remus feels a hand wrap around his shoulder. It’s nice and stronger than he expects. He shivers into the sensation even though the night air is surprisingly warm. Sirius and James have made themselves rather at home here in their thus far short-lived stay. The camp seems pleased to have the extra pairs of hands. Even if it is only temporary. Remus assumes it is.  
  
“Yeah, I’m fine. James was telling me a bit about what you’ve been doing,” he says finally, trying to change the subject away from himself. He doesn’t want to feel so knowable in this kingdom he’s created.  
  
“I never thought I’d be travelling around helping people break out of from under the dictatorship of a guy who used to come to family dinners,” Sirius says, “You know, he used to read me and Regulus bedtime stories? Tom Riddle I mean obviously, is it obvious I feel like it is, most people seem to know about my lovely family’s association with his regime. I mean all of it was utter propaganda, the bloody tosspot, but still.”  
  
“I’m not sure if I should say that sounds nice or horrifying,” Remus tells him, Sirius shrugs which definitely feels more like an answer than not.  
  
“I love machines, I always have, but automation was just something that I…” Sirius trails off, wringing his hands tightly in front of him before releasing them to his sides, “It’s not that I was afraid of it, you see. It was the way it was being treated. In the early days of the conversion, people talked about how much it would help, how society would evolve into one not putting so much value on labour, and then we’d have so much time for other things.”  
  
“Parts of it did help, though - it made life so much easier and people’s lives shouldn’t be measured by how often or how hard they work,” Remus points out.  
  
“I know that,” Sirius snaps. He looks guilty at his outburst and sputters out a string of words that could have been an apology; Remus doesn’t particularly care as he’s not upset. He holds up a hand to silence Sirius and the man begins to calm down.  
  
“We all know that, knew that, at least, that was the real problem with automation - not the machines themselves; they were easily welcomed as we all grew up in a technological age. The problem was society is stubborn and prone to digging in its heels at the highest level. New ideas and new concepts create terror for the people in charge,” Remus has lived in society long enough to know how it works, how they let it be flawed no matter how much they try to change it. There’s always something to change, to break, to fix. Sirius’ knee bumps against his own and the two of them smile at each other. Fast friends indeed.  
  
“Yeah,” Sirius says, his breath low and tight making his voice sound simultaneously close and very far away. Remus thinks he might like it.  
  
“You should get some rest,” he says.

  
  
🌱

  
  
“Girls are pretty,” James says, as Sirius wraps his arms around his friend’s waist. Sirius sighs and buries his face in James’ neck.  
  
“I suppose so,” he half agrees sleepily. James turns to face him, slotting their legs together so they tangle comfortably. He props himself up on one arm and studies Sirius.  
  
“I think I could be in love with her,” James says dreamily. Sirius has half a mind to punch him in the gut.  
  
“Whom?”  
  
“Lily Evans, the most gorgeous person I’ve ever met. Like honestly, mate!” James sighs and flops back down.  
  
“Should I be worried about this goddess stealing you away from me, Jamie?” Sirius teases. James looks at him with such solemnity, Sirius actually begins to question his own existence.  
  
“Don’t act like you haven’t been mooning over the fair Remus since the moment you laid your grubby little eyes on him,” James points out.  
  
“I didn’t say I hadn’t, but I’m also not declaring my undying love for him.”  
  
“You’re a wanker,” James laughs and Sirius shoves him playfully. They wrestle for a bit before almost knocking down the tent Remus had so kindly provided for them. James yawns.  
  
“Goodnight,” he says.

  
  
🌱

  
  
“I think we need to go out on another patrol,” Lily tells him. Remus frowns, he knew full well that all of the women could take care of themselves, but he still worries.  
  
“You just went,” he counters, Lily leans forward and flicks him in the ribs. Remus huffs.  
  
“It isn’t enough. You know it isn’t enough! We have to cripple the whole system,” Lily tries to explain.  
  
“Who’d have thought you’d be such an anarchist,” Remus teases.  
  
“You did,” Marlene says, joining them with a bowl of rabbit stew for breakfast, “Here, babe,” she says handing it to Lily.  
  
“You did,” Lily agrees, “Besides we’re way past anarchy now, don’t you think?”  
  
“Can anything actually be post-anarchy by definition? Neo-anarchy? ” Remus wonders. This conversation is making his head hurt.  
  
“I don’t give a shit, I just want people to be safe. This regime is systematic oppression and genocide. We don’t even know how the rest of the world is faring because all communications have been cut off. At most, we get word from Scotland and Wales. They aren’t as much of a shitshow as we are. Not entirely at least,” Lily says.  
  
“But still,” Marlene adds.  
  
“But still,” Remus agrees. “Okay lay out a plan for me. What are you thinking of hitting?”  
  
“That’s my boy! We’ll make a Siren out of you yet,” Lily grins.

  
  
🌱

  
  
Sirius is sore when he wakes up, and the sun is so high in the sky, it shocks him. He doesn’t recall ever sleeping this long in his life. He stretches his whole body out, his limbs taking up the whole space in the tent. His stomach growls, something he’s used to by now. He finds a band to tie his hair up with and crawls out into the day.  
  
People are milling about the camp, clearly doing a variety of necessary tasks to keep the place running smoothly. James is over talking to Lily; she hasn’t punched him in the stomach so he surely can’t be bothering her too much. His eyes find his brother's and he feels a softness in his heart he'd forgotten.  
  
Regulus is talking to Remus, and it's amusing because though Regulus is taller than the other boy, he still manages to look like a bright-eyed little kid next to his idol. Sirius wonders at all the other things Remus could have been in other lives - a celebrity, a mischief maker, a teacher, a wayward lover lost in the wilderness of desperation waiting for his soulmate.  
  
“He's pretty, isn't he?” Sirius jumps a solid foot and a half, turning towards the source of the question. He lets out the most dignified huff he can possibly manage. ‘Sirens’ Remus had called them and Sirius can understand why - her voice is light and musical, but under the surface, there's a gruff power that elicits a need to hang on her every word.  
  
“If you say so,” is what he replies dumbly, slamming his mouth shut quickly into a single line. She laughs.  
  
“I'm Marlene.”  
  
“He is, he is pretty,” Sirius says because apparently, he can’t help himself after all. Marlene laughs at him and Sirius can’t even bring himself to feel self-conscious. He deserves to be laughed at. Until only a week ago he’d been long past having schoolboy crushes, and now his knees are weak with it.  
  
“I never thought a Warlock would be defeated so easily by the Alpha” he turns to her with a frown. In theory, her words must make some sense, for her to say them so casually, but he can’t piece them together.  
  
“Remus is the Alpha,” he guesses. Marlene nods. “Who’s the Warlock then?”  
  
Marlene looks him straight in the eyes, her gaze poring over him as though she can see all his lives at once, “You.”  
  
“I’m nothing but an ordinary man; there isn’t a single special thing about me,” Sirius tells her, and it’s true. Nothing about Sirius’ existence is meaningful. The world keeps spinning without him. He’s not the only person who does what he does. James is right there, a dazed look on his face as he follows after Lily with an armful of firewood.  
  
“That’s the tragedy of the century, Sirius Black, that even a seemingly insignificant cog is needed to make this machine run smoothly,” Marlene says. He’d read a story once about a goddess; Greek, he’s sure but he never did pay much attention to the classics and all those gods were easy to muddle up. The book had been dusty and old, half the page crumbled away by age, but Marlene’s words now draw out the memory of the ink as though it is a magic spell. It talked about how the goddess was most important, the most revered, the most sought after, although she had no seat amongst the biggest of them. No minor goddess, but a small entity nonetheless.  
  
“James and I, we were just trying our best,” Sirius replies. Marlene places her hand on his shoulder with a firm reassuring smack.  
  
“Yes, and you've shaped the face of an entire rebellion. You do know that, because of you, fewer people have had to flee, right? Together we've given people hope, places to stay, reasons to fight, a means of survival.”  
  
“I did all of that?” he asks, filled with awe.  
  
“Yes.”

  
  
🌱

  
  
Remus has been walking up this mountain for as long as he can remember; there's not even a memory of why he started to climb it. Reaching the peak seems like a daunting process and he has run out of food - maybe he never even had any, to begin with.  
  
His stomach growls, the sound is animalistic but he can't think what animal it reminds him of, what do animals look like? There is none here on this mountain.  
  
He thinks he might be cold, yet his body is too numb. He wishes his fur was thicker, his paws feel sore on the rocky, icy ground. How odd - he was sure he had human hands before.  
  
What is a human?  
  
There are none on this mountain. He is so old, and tired. He stares up at the stars and wishes he could reach them. He loves the stars, craves the stars. How could he have forgotten?  
  
He is angry and sad. Hopelessly broken. Incomplete. Incomplete. Incomplete. Missing a part of his soul. It's mate. His mate. His love. How could he have forgotten his love?  
  
A pair of arms wrap around him, engulfing him completely. He can feel his lover on his skin. The hands dipping impossibly lower  
  
Remus’ face is stained with tears when he wakes up. There's anguish he feels, but mostly it's relief laced with an odd satisfaction. His blankets are tangled and stained with sweat. There's something sticky between his legs - not just stained with sweat then. He tries to ignore the embarrassment. He's never had a dream affect him so much. He makes a low content sound in the depths of his chest. It isn't the first dream like this he has had. Thousands of the boy, the man. His lover. However, it's the first time he can think of where is mind turns to someone in the waking world. Images of Sirius laughing and grinning dance across his vision and like the hands in his dream he wraps his fingers around himself tugging lazily at his cock until he finds release again.

  
  
🌱

  
  
“I'm going to help the Sirens with their raid,” James tells him a couple of days later, the whole camp has been helping them plan. Sirius picks at a handful of nuts and berries.  
  
“Not that I don't think it's important to work, because I do, but Jamie, we're supposed to be fixing a factory. Something that will help with developing and processing food that isn't controlled by the government,” he says. He doesn't like the idea of doing it alone, of being alone.  
  
“What's the point of fixing anything if there aren’t people around to benefit from it? You know what Riddle has done, everything he is capable of. He murdered King William and Queen Katherine on live television. He blew up the fucking parliament! Sirius, come on,” James yells. Sirius holds up a hand to stop him and James takes heavy, gasping breaths.  
  
“I know okay, I know. I'm sorry,” Sirius says, “It’s just that we’ve done everything together for as long I can remember. This is our thing.”  
  
James picks at a loose thread on his jacket, something that he’ll need to fix or risk yet another hole, “We aren’t attached at the hip, mate. Take Remus instead. I’m sure he’d like it if you showed him the ropes.”  
  
“I can’t ask Remus to leave his people.”  
  
“Of course you can - this camp is a well-oiled machine and other people will be here. Regulus for example. That Peter bloke,” James says, “Unless, of course, there’s some other reason you don’t want him to come along. Too distracting, maybe.”  
  
Sirius kicks James in the shin; it isn’t super hard but it still causes James to hop about like an idiot for a few moments, “Shut it, Jamie.”  
  
“It’s been a while since you’ve had a good shag,” James teases. “You can’t go chasing after some dream your whole life,” Sirius looks over his shoulder to check Remus isn’t actually within earshot.  
  
“That isn’t the bloody point,” he hisses. He doesn’t add that he wants Remus to be his dream, has been thinking maybe he is. He doesn’t want to sound so desperately hopeful.  
  
“Then you don’t have an argument! Remus is a smart guy, you know?” James tells him, and Sirius feels an unwarranted pang of jealousy and he’s not sure which side of him it's from. He hates it though, hates how sometimes he doesn’t like James talking to other people - having other friends, having lovers. What he hates, even more, is his own ugly green heart rearing its head over the idea of James and Remus being known to each other in a way that Sirius isn’t a part of. Sirius knows Remus is smart, but it’s the way James says it with such confidence, that bothers him.  
  
“You’re thinking too much,” James says.

  
  
  
🌱

  
  
“My brother is going to ask you to go with him,” Regulus says, leaning into Remus’ ear. Remus doesn’t flinch as the younger boy’s breath tickles at his neck. Regulus never could surprise him, really  
  
“Have you been eavesdropping again, you little whelp?” Remus asks him. Regulus slinks his way around to sit between Remus’ legs. Remus starts combing through his hair with his fingers to disentangle the knots, and Regulus makes a content noise in his throat.  
  
“Can you blame me? So, are you going to go? Off adventuring with a handsome young man?” Regulus teases. Remus tugs at his hair and Regulus yelps.  
  
“That is your brother, you know,” Remus sighs, trying to derail this conversation, even if he wholeheartedly agrees.  
  
“Yeah, but he’s not your brother and I think that’s the much more important thing here, isn’t it?” Regulus asks, tilting his head against Remus’ stomach and poking his tongue up at him.  
  
“No,” Remus says stubbornly. Regulus rolls his eyes, the little brat.  
  
“Have you ever even dated anyone?” he asks and Remus freezes. Of course, he hasn’t. There has never been the time. “We don’t have apps for this sort of thing anymore, so you’ve got to meet people somehow,” Regulus continues.  
  
“I barely know him.”  
  
  
“Remus, Alpha. I love you but you’re a useless fucking git.”  
  
Remus ties Regulus’ hair up and shoves him away, “I love you too.”  
  
🌱  
“Remus,” Sirius says, sitting down next to the other boy. Remus has his hands curled in Maisie’s fur, he claimed he didn’t play favourites - but Maisie was by his side more often than anyone else, wolf or human. Others would come and go, of course. Holding The Alpha’s attention for this or that matter. Sirius wishes with just a twinge of guilt that he was that constant.  
  
“I thought you might come to talk to me,” Remus replies, and the lilt in his voice when he says it makes Sirius want to be devoured. Perhaps that’s how werewolves in all of those old tales were made. Sirius remembers an aunt, but not which one, telling him how if you drank from the pawprint of a wolf under the full moon - you would become one.  
  
“Do you think if I drank from your footprint I would become like you?” Sirius asks. Remus visibly shivers and curls a little closer into Maisie.  
  
“I’m not entirely sure why you’d want to.”  
  
“I’d say it’s because of this growing obsession, but I don’t know if that would be making a fool of myself and I’d rather keep my dignity,” Sirius jokes. Remus cracks a smile and moves his knee until it knocks into Sirius’ side.  
  
“The part I don’t get,” Remus begins, “The part I don’t get is why you ever came here in the first place. I was never part of the plan.” he concludes.  
  
“The camp was never part of the plan, you mean,” Sirius counters. Remus nods and Sirius can see the lines of his throat move when he swallows.  
  
“Did you dream of me too?” Remus asks.

  
  
🌱

  
  
Sirius wakes up, younger than he remembers and groans. There are three more four-poster beds laid out beside his own, no, he's miscalculated. Five beds in total. He swings his legs out from under the covers onto the cold dormitory floor. He tiptoes and slides into the best bed.  
  
There's someone else there, but it's too dark to see much of anything. An arm reaches for him and drags him into an abyss of soft blankets and cold limbs.  
  
“It's late, did you have another nightmare?” the person asks him, the voice is barely above a whisper. A secret just between the two of them.  
  
“I don't remember. I just wanted to be close to you.”  
  
“James and Peter think we're dating, I heard them talking about trying to catch us out,” Remus laughs, reaching a hand around Sirius’ waist.  
  
“Would that be so far-fetched?” Sirius asks. He'd thought about asking Remus out so many times. He'd thought about it at breakfast three weeks in a row.  
  
“I don't think it would be, not really,” Remus replies, ever the honest one. He always knows how to shock Remus.  
  
“Full moon is coming up,” Sirius says softly.  
  
Remus hums, “I always seem to like the moon better in my dreams.”

  
  
🌱

  
  
“Did you have the dream about the alien invasion?” Remus asks. They're packing up to go to the factory. James and Lily had left at dawn with the other Sirens. James and Sirius hadn’t said goodbye in a traditional sense, it felt like tempting fate after barely been apart for so long, but they wished each other luck and a see you soon.  
  
“When I was like twelve, what's the earliest dream you remember?” Sirius returns. They've been shooting questions like this back and forth for a while now.  
  
“It was like this, all of them are pretty much like this, all catastrophic, end of the world. Crap,” Remus says.  
  
“It's not the end of the world yet.”  
  
“What if this is just another dream, what if we don't exist and we're just figments of someone else's imagination?” Remus question, sinking down to the ground and placing his head between his knees. He can feel Sirius stroking at his back.  
  
“If it is, how do we wake up?” Sirius prompts. Remus looks up and grabs Sirius by the shirt, pressing their mouths together. It's a little awkward but it's the best first kiss Sirius has ever had. There are no fireworks, nothing to mark it as special. But the taste of Remus on his lips has left him satisfied.  
  
“Do you think that will work?” Remus questions, stepping away. Sirius grabs him by the sleeve and pulls him in again.  
  
“Let’s try it a couple more times.”

  
  
🌱

  
  
They are knights fighting an evil sorcerer.

  
  
🌱

  
  
They are sailors adventuring to the ends of the earth.

  
  
🌱

  
  
They are zombies devouring thousands of men in their wake.

  
  
🌱

  
  
They are living through an endless nuclear winter.

  
  
🌱

  
They are the figments of a computerised program trying to stay alive through its own destruction, running, always running from code.

  
  
🌱

  
  
  
They are the beginning and end of all things.

  
  
🌱

  
  
Remus laughs into Sirius’ mouth and everything feels okay because this time they're going to save the world.  
  
  
🌳🌳🌳🌳  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I told you nothing happens, I do hope you enjoyed it though


End file.
